Put aside for a moment Ayatollah Khamenei’s latest threat to Israel (and Israel’s response).
Pay attention to what’s actually happening inside Iran.
Potkin Azarmehr reports:
Throughout the December protests in Iran, one common chant by the protesters was, “Let go of Gaza and Syria, think about our plight”. Iran’s state TV and media often boast of the regime’s generous charity work outside Iran. For those inside Iran, watching the regime’s prioritise others’ needs in contrast with their own poverty is becoming unbearable.
On Monday, Iranian media published a video of a state run charity, Imam Khomeini Relief Committee, feeding 300,000 Palestinians in Gaza with an Iftar dinner, for the month of Ramadan. The reaction to the video was a lot like watching a powder keg being lit. One Iranian was so outraged that he took an Imam Khomeini Relief Committee donation charity box and threw it in the bin, filming himself in the act. He then sent his clip to Manoto TV, the London based satellite broadcaster, and the most popular Persian TV station, in Iran.
The station aired the clip of the donation box being binned, and in no time at all Manoto was inundated with copycat videos from other viewers inside Iran.
“Charity begins at home, I don’t want what comes out of the pockets of our people to be spent in Lebanon and Gaza. I too, back the campaign of ‘No donations to Imam Khomeini Relief Charity’ ”, was typically what was said on these videos.
And within recent weeks this has happened:
She is neither a hardliner nor a moderate; she is not an abstraction for you to write your thesis about or have panel discussions around – she is fighting for something very inherent & basic for 40 years in #Iran. If you can’t see that, you may have a corpse in your mouth. pic.twitter.com/B7kts3QAss
— Samira Mohyeddin سمیرا (@SMohyeddin) June 6, 2018
And this:
The people of Isfahan resist the regime’s morality police as they try to arrest an innocent woman. Everyday Iranians fight back against the brutality & totalitarian ideology of the regime. https://t.co/bjUDnjWHwF
— Alireza Nader (@AlirezaNader) June 3, 2018
And this:
#Breaking, Nikshahr, Sistan & Baluchestan province, southeast #Iran, 6/7: Truck drivers stage strike. #IranRegimeChange #FreeIran2018 #اعتصابات_کامیونداران @NCRIUS pic.twitter.com/hClKhnqH6z
— Ali Safavi (@amsafavi) June 7, 2018
And this:
Taxi drivers have also gone on strike in #iran along with truck drivers. The regime will be in grave danger if strikes spread to other econ/societal sectors including energy.
pic.twitter.com/ZdehVU2urp— Alireza Nader (@AlirezaNader) May 31, 2018
And this from the Iran correspondent of ARD German Television:
I have never seen more protests in #Iran than in these recent times. Truck drivers are on strike. Teachers have been already for a long time. Minorities protest. Farmers go to the barricades. There’s tension everywhere. Through social media, protests gain publicity. Instantly. pic.twitter.com/W0EAtTnGQw
— Natalie Amiri (@NatalieAmiri) May 30, 2018
And perhaps most encouragingly, this:
Iran school children refuse to step on the flags of #Israel and #US pic.twitter.com/N4TX7Dx2gN
— Potkin Azarmehr (@potkazar) June 2, 2018
